South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SCBG, CAS), formerly known as the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, Sun Yat-Sen University, was founded in 1929 by Chen Huanyong (Woon-young Chun), renowned botanist and academician of CAS. It was renamed as the South China Institute of Botany, CAS in 1954, and was changed to the present name in 2003 according to the development strategy of CAS.

Being geared to the national strategic demands and the world science frontier, SCBG has been carrying on a large amount of fundamental, strategic and forward-looking research projects in the following fields: restoration and rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems, systematic and evolutionary botany, conservation and sustainable utilization of plant resources, as well as landscaping and horticulture.

The garden is composed of three compartments: 1) a nursery and exhibition zone, viz. the arboretum, occupying an area of 282 hectares. It was designed mainly for plant ex-situ conservation with over 11,000 plant taxa grown in over 30 gardens of special collections such as magnolias, palms, gingers and orchids; 2) a research and residential zone, covering an area of 37 hectares. It features a herbarium conserving 1,000,000 plant specimens and a state of the art laboratory complex; and 3) the Dinghushan National Nature Reserve, established in 1956 as the only reserve of CAS. It is the first national nature reserve in China and has established one field research station since 1978, namely the National Research Station of Dinghushan Forest Ecosystems. The total area of the reserve is 1,155 hectares, where over 2,400 plant species are under in situ protection. In addition, SCBG runs two other field observation stations, the National Field Research Station of Heshan Forest Ecosystem, and the Xiaoliang Research Station for Restoration of Tropical Coastal Degraded Ecosystem, CAS.

Presently there are about 326 staff members in SCBG, including 34 research professors and 31 associate professors. Postgraduate students are enrolled every year, and there are 277 postgraduates together. Among them 103 are doctoral students and 173 are master degree candidates. The doctorate degree is conferred in three fields (botany, ecology, and biochemistry and molecular biology), and master’s degree in four fields (botany, ecology, biochemistry and molecular biology, and ornamental plants and gardening). There is a postdoctoral scientific research mobile station for biology, and 4 postdoctors are conducting postdoctoral study in this station.

SCBG sets up 6 research fields, which are: 1) Global change and ecosystem service; 2) Environmental degradation and ecological restoration; 3) Plant systematic and evolutionary biology; 4) Biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilization; 5) Agricultural food quality and safety, and phytochemical resources; and 6) Sustainable use of plant and gene resources. There are 25 research teams included in the 6 fields.

SCBG has obtained an abundance of research achievements in the fields of ecology, systematic and evolutionary botany, plant resources, biotechnology, landscape and gardening, and so on. Since 1954, more than 4000 academic papers and 340 monographs, such as Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, Flora Hainanica, Flora of Guangdong, Flora of Guangzhou, The Vegetation of Guangdong, and Studies on the Tropical and Subtropical Degraded Ecosystem and Its Rehabilitation, have been issued. From 1978 through 2007, over 2430 papers were published in Chinese key journals (viz. CSCD papers) and 597 ones were published in international journals indexed in SCI. Among them there were two papers published in the two internationally authoritative journals, Nature, and Science in 2004 and 2006, respectively. Since 1978, 353 research achievements have been obtained, of which 246 won prizes at various levels, including one second prize of the National Science and Technology Advance Awards. 61 patents have been applied for, of which 34 have been licensed.

SCBG has set up productive international exchange and collaborations with institutions of dozens of countries and regions in the past decades. The number of exchange scholars is up to 100 per year. During the period of 2002-2007, SCGB successfully organized 8 international conferences, including the Symposium on Theory of Ecosystem Succession and Practice of Ecological Restoration, the Third International Conference on Vetiver and Exhibition, the Symposium on Theory and Methods of Carbon Equilibrium and Circulation in Ecosystems, the International Symposium on Artemisia and its Allies: Systematic, Resources and Economic Uses, and so on. More than 500,000 visitors from both home and abroad visit SCBG every year.

An agreement on the Reconstruction of SCBG was subscribed in December 2002, to which a total of RMB 300 million Yuan has been invested inthe ratio of 1:1:1 by CAS, Guangdong provincial government and Guangzhou municipal government. Eight projects involved in the agreement were carried out with the idea of “scientific element, artistic landscape and cultural root” in order to satisfy the people, the experts, and the government. The great improvements in infrastructure, landscape and scientific components through the Reconstruction has laid a solid foundation for SCBG to be one of the top gardens in Asia or even in the world.